


The Breaking of the Circle

by ArkadyFinch (ArkadyFlinch)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fluff, Mind altering experience, Nausea, Nothing sexual sorry, Nudity, Other, Tentacles, mentions of body modification, mixed metaphors, out of body experience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-28 20:35:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11425707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArkadyFlinch/pseuds/ArkadyFinch
Summary: Maggie and the Eldritch abomination that lives in her attic - given the name Vee - attempt to get Vee out of that pesky summoning circle.In order to do so Maggie just needs to spend a little time...outside of her mortal flesh, so to speak.Banter and attempting to rationalize something that doesnt exist on the same plane ensue.





	The Breaking of the Circle

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> [Brackets] are for Vee's speech.

[Are you ready?]

 

It felt awkward, standing up here in the attic without a shirt on, but in the greater sense of things, the feeling of air on her breasts was the least of her worries. Her hands tightened on her notebook, now looking more like one of Lucas’ old tomes, stuffed with notes and sigils that Vee had shown her. 

With a deep breath she nodded, “What do you want me to do?”

 

[You will be tied to the Door for a few hours. Sit on the edge of the circle with that in mind.]

 

“Okay...make myself comfortable then.”

 

All night she’d read and reread what would come of this little...ceremony. She knew each and every technical detail of what would happen to her, but she was still uncertain. It didn’t help that Vee wasn’t quite sure itself what would happen. 

This was old magic, an ancient spell Vee had stumbled upon sometime before the rise of the world’s first great empires. They knew what to do, but not what the end result would be. They could only hope on that front.

The ink on her back had been a bitch to apply, but it was dry, she’d checked and rechecked over and over to make sure not a single line had smudged while it dried. She hadn’t slept at all last night, too wary of laying down and possibly ruining the marks.

 

[Only when you are ready, place your hands on the innermost ring of the circle. I will pull you through to shelter you from the ordeal.]

 

Ah, yes, the ordeal. The ordeal being having runes inscribed on her skin permanently. The ordeal being seeing into this circle, into Vee’s world and at Vee itself. The ordeal being not violently dissociating for weeks on end from seeing these things. 

 

“What happens when I’m there?” She settled her legs in place, there wasn’t really any way to sit on the hard wooden floor that was comfortable, so Maggie went with the most stable position she could. The notebook rested beside her, and she stared at the empty space within the circle.

 

[You will share headspace with me. I will amplify your thoughts to act as a barrier between you and I. It will shield you from being absorbed into my mind and from pain.]

 

“Weird.” She hesitated when she lifted her hands, the lines running over her fingers and up her arms pretty in their perfection. They weren’t sure whether or not the markings would stay, but she kind of hoped the patterns on her hands would. They were pretty.

 

[You are scared.]

 

“Well yeah. A lot can go wrong with this. For one, apparently if you’re not careful you can absorb my mind into your mind.”

 

[You would not perish from that, merely become a part of my Archives.]

 

“Being turned into a book isn’t really  _ better _ than death.”

 

[We both must be careful. Your thoughts will protect you.]

 

“So what, think of a peaceful meadow?”

 

[If you like.]

 

“I have intrusive thoughts, what happens if I think about dying?”

 

[I can keep you from harm, but only for a short period of time. The longer you think of it, the harder it is to keep reality altering to your whim.]

 

“Jesus, you  _ live _ like that?”

 

[It is not so hard.]

 

Vee was the reigning champion of understatements, but Maggie let it go. Left to their own devices, they could probably argue for the entire day. From what they knew of this, it would take a long time as is, they couldn’t waste minutes bickering. Sudden thoughts kept rising up, bringing more questions to mind. 

She frowned and focused on clearing her head, once this started, she’d need the clarity.

 

[Are you having second thoughts?]

 

“Well, I’m not going to act like getting a god stitched into my back is something I ever dreamed of, but we don’t have a lot of options, and I’m willing to help you.” She slid her hands along the floor, stopping just short of the third ring, the point of no return.

“Okay, here we go.”

 

She slid her hands over the runes, smiling as they matched up perfectly with the runes covering her hands. She had been bracing herself for a jerk, a jolt as she was pulled out of her brain, some sort of searing pain from the runes in her back, but after a few seconds, she felt no different. 

“Uh, did it work?”

 

She blinked as she spoke, and when her eyes opened again she was swimming in darkness. 

 

“Whoa…so...it’s happening? Right now?”

 

[Yes.] 

 

Instead of the voice being projected into her mind, it echoed around her, surrounding her with it’s silent timbre. Vee had told her, once, that it didn’t have a voice, that the soothing, low tones were her own invention. She liked its voice, but didn’t like the thought that she shaped it just by being there. 

Just like she was supposed to shape this darkness surrounding her. 

She closed her eyes and thought of a library. Small, so she didn’t have to think of anything fancy, like the one in her neighborhood. 

When she opened them she was there, the feel of its carpet beneath her toes, the smell of books, and the not-quite quiet. Pages flipped somewhere among the shelves, sounds of people who weren’t there giving the quiet some life. 

 

[Interesting choice.]

 

“What? I like the library. A good place to spend a few hours.” She strode over and sat down, still in her shorts and not-shirt from earlier. With no one else around, she curled in the seat to make herself comfy. Everything felt astoundingly real, which shouldn’t have come to a surprise, but she found herself rubbing her hands on the fabric of the chair in wonder. 

“So where are you?”

 

[Here.]

 

Though Vee didn’t laugh, she could sense its amusement as she scowled. 

 

“But like, where can I see you?”

 

[You want to see me?]

 

“Well, not the you that can drive me crazy, but, you know, the you that you think I could handle.”

 

A man stepped from the shelves, wearing tight jeans and no shirt. His combed back hair and bright blue eyes brought a groan from her. “You don’t look like Jacob fucking Blake.”

 

[I can if you want me to.]

 

“There’s not even like, a simple form you could take? Show me the real you while I’m stuck here?”

 

[Nothing is real, least of all you or me.]

 

“You know what I mean.” She huffed, watching the man stand there like a robot. Vee could take his form but Vee had no idea what made a human look human. The visage before her looked like a statue, unmoving, unbreathing. “Show me a form of you that you like.”

 

[I will try.]

 

Satisfied, she sat back, ready to wait. Vee was by no means one to be rushed, and usually the word ‘try’ meant she was in for a wait while it thought long and hard about it.

 

“Heh, long and hard, amiright, Blake?”

 

Blake didn’t move, but Maggie chuckled at her joke for a few seconds longer. 

 

She began making guesses about what Vee would reveal itself to be. From earlier glimpses, she knew it had long, thick tentacles, like an octopus, each with a mind of its own. No doubt it’s main body was even larger, too big to fit into the room she’d imagined. In fact, once Vee had said the circle in her attic was more like an open window that it reached through than a door, so it was likely three or four times larger than the attic. Which also meant it had many many more tentacles than she’d glimpsed so far.

Maybe Vee was just a giant squid, all the warnings of madness a ruse to hide their soft, squishy body from ridicule.

 

[Stop thinking about what I look like.]

 

A grin split her face, “What am I making it hard for you?”

 

[Yes. Be patient.]

 

“What’s so hard about showing me a simplified version of the you that you like?” Maggie glanced back at Jacob Blake, but the man had disappeared. “I think you're just shy.”

 

[Would I have invited you into my consciousness if I were?]

 

“You’re dodging the question, Vee.”

 

[And you are preoccupied with my so called physical form.]

 

She groaned and let it drop, leaning back in the chair and looking out into the aisles of books. She could occupy herself reading for hours on end, but she didn’t have a good enough memory, they probably wouldn’t actually have anything in them. Squinting, she tried reading some titles, but whether it was her shitty eyes or her shitty memory she couldn't tell, they all looked blobbish.

 

[I could provide reading materials for you.]

 

“What, like crazy old demon books?”

 

[If you like. I also have the books you gave me.]

 

Maggie sat up, growing impatient with the voice that had no single origin. Her eyes trailed around the library, looking for a source, if any.

“I didn't give you any books, you ate them. Just like you ate my tattoo.”

 

[Do you want the books or not?]

 

“Depends. You going to show yourself soon?”

 

[Unlikely. This form needs tweaking.]

 

“I dont think I could focus on books right now anyway.” She glanced Blakes way, then made a face. No, reading about Blakes misadventures while he was standing right there would be a mistake. Especially when her thoughts made such an impact on the world around her. While she’d been distracted the library had begun to bleed and fade, colors running until the bookcases were fuzzy brown squares containing various colors within. The carpet looked like a badly loaded texture, and Mags had to look at her lap to avoid a headache she felt swiftly approaching.

Closing her eyes, she willed it away, until all that existed in a grey void was her and the chair.

 

Maggie kicked her legs impatiently, wheedling, “C’mon Vee, you don't need to look pretty for me.”

 

[I am more concerned that this form will drive you mad.]

 

Maggie sighed. “Vee. If i can handle your tentacle-eyes or mouths or whatever it is those things are in the real world - If you can manifest your arms without hurting my brain, you can handle this.”

 

[...alright.]

A pinpoint of light flickered to life before her, growing slowly and steadily. It wasn’t until it was the size of her fist that she could accurately gauge how close it was, hovering above her folded legs. Her hands came around to cup the orb as it swelled and flickered. It didn't feel like anything, but she couldn't touch it. Her hands stopped a good distance from its surface, held back by a force that almost felt like glass. Weightless, textureless glass.

 

It was about the size of a melon before it split, growing into two distinct lobes, soft glow increasing until it was almost uncomfortable to look at directly. As Maggie tried to watch the metamorphosis, an image came into her head, a small, wriggling thing, fighting its way into some great furnace. Small wet tendrils stuck to her skin, pulling her towards the sun, fires of the hearth reaching for her frail, sickly form.

 

Just as quickly the image was whisked away, leaving her dazedly looking at the shape in front of her, even as a pupil - also bilobed- dilated from nothing, searching for her eyes for a moment as it floated, an eye, flashing every color in the rainbow and then dozens more, each one wrong somehow. A green that tasted of something old and dusty, like mothballs and the grime found in an attic inhabited by rats. A purple that was, somehow, also an entire spectrum of oranges and pinks, colors not only bleeding into each other but overlapping, like the color found behind her eyelids. 

 

The single pupil found hers, and she sucked in a breath, finding not just an emptiness within the black, but an entire other existence. In that inscrutable black, hidden planets and sinister celestial gods lurked, not only was Vee watching her, but dozens, hundreds of others, unnamed, undefinable, except by the feeling of their gazes.

Knowledge, vast and endless, drew her in.  

 

[Stop.]

 

Maggie took a deep breath, as if she had been holding it for minutes, and found herself drawing Vee’s eye towards her. She stopped, arms shaking as her muscles fought against the impulse to just fall into it. 

Join the thousands of unseen eyes and hands within Vee’s gaze. Submerge into a sea of stories, each one longer than the entirety of human history.

 

[You are looking into my Archives.] 

 

“They’re...conscious?” She felt like she was waking up from a night of drinking, slow, achy. Her hands still tightly clutched Vee’s eye, unsure if it was Vee or her own hands were gonna betray her and draw her into the Archives where she would join the thousands of overlapping voices vibrating between her hands, running up the bones of her hands all the way to her elbows.

 

[All great legends are.]

 

Maggie closed her eyes and swallowed with a click. “That's what would happen to me if you...added me to your collection?”

 

[In a fashion.]

 

“This is  _ just  _ your eye…”

 

[Do you understand now?]

 

“Why not just...give me a rough physical description? Why all the…” she shivered, feeling herself on the edge of a precipice. 

 

[I do not wish to be dishonest. I also fear losing a part of me in translation. I am unused to...speaking, so to speak.]

 

Whenever Lucas was reading in his books upon books of foreign lang, he moved pretty fast. But creating meaning out of foreign words was always more difficult. He said he sounded like a kindergartner to his teachers in the first few years.

 

She offered a soft smile. “You  _ are  _ nervous.”

 

[I do not wish to deceive you.]

 

“Keep practicing. One day we’ll get it.” As she usually found herself, Maggie had to remind herself to open her eyes and stare at Vee. It was so tempting to shut her eyes - Vee still provided more than enough sensory data, most of it she couldn't directly see - it was tiring trying to keep her vision from swimming. 

 

But this was so much better than it had been. Bit by bit, she could feel herself getting used to it. Having her brain sandblasted by fifteen different types of overlapping mixed metaphors wasn't leaving her with blackouts anymore, now she just felt vaguely ill. 

  
Progress, with a side of nausea. 


End file.
